Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards No una-corda samples on new digital pianos?

Yes, you can usually change the intensity of the effect, but as you mention, I would expect that only modifies the note-on velocity. If we're thinking about how the una corda works, I would think a stronger una corda effect would also decrease a "hammer hardness" setting if the DP has that?

The una chorda on my teachers acoustic grand is not subtle at all, it makes a distinctly different sound, and is noticeably softer (aside from the excitement of the whole keyboard moving over to the left!) As I mentioned in the N1X thread, for all intents and purposes I can't tell if the N1X una chorda is working. Playing a repeated note or set of notes with consistent velocity, I can't detect any difference between when it's on or off. This came up because my teacher was suggesting I use it for one of my pieces last night so I tried it at home and it effectively did nothing.

There's no adjustment for depth on it, however I'm curious if it's somehow being affected by IAC. I'm going to try turning it off tonight and see if there is a difference.

All of the professionals in my piano meetup use the una chorda constantly (and often subconsciously I found out.) It was explained that particularly when playing a grand in a small room (our meetups are in peoples homes) it's vital to moderate the sound to fit the room. Mortals like myself hardly use it at all, but now I have to so I'd like it to work

That would be smart to make the sound a little more soft (but still very far from what happens in the real thing). But from what I hear, I feel just a velocity "limiter" when I depress the left pedal. No other timbral changes...

I'm curious to know what happens on Roland modeled pianos when you press the left pedal. Just a velocity limiter or they modeled the 1-corda sound? Recently I went back to work on my hobby project of a modeled piano synth. In my synth every single string is modeled, so it would be very easy to switch to 1-corda sound... I should just turn off the strings that should not be hit by the hammer!

Same. I heard it this morning on my teacher's grand and the quality of the sound was definitely different when used, and it was a bit softer. She listened to my N1X and couldn't hear any difference.


Same.


Same.


Let us know.


I see videos on Youtube of some pianists who not only live on their una corda pedals, they seem to use them in at least 3 positions - up, down, and mid-way:




Same!

Are you handling string resonance? Because the string that is not hit by the hammer should have a sympathetic resonance from the one or two that were hit.

Also, as CyberGene pointed out above, the una corda pedal pressed only half-way would be hitting the strings with a softer part of the felt of the hammer which should change the timbre, I'd guess. The pianist above might be doing that because sometimes she presses the una corda pedal all the way down, and other times, only half way. Also for some notes, there is only one string, so the hammer is just shifted to hit that one string with a softer part of the felt.

Did anyone else find that video to be creepy?

Wait, you were supposed to be looking at her left foot!

Is this better? She half-pedals the una corda pedal in this one too:



(BTW, for those that think I am being 'gratuitous', well, maybe I am. But she's honest the only one I've seen half-pedaling the una corda pedal in a video.)

Yes, that's true, but I think in this case the you would have a weak resonance from a string with almost the same frequency of the adjacent strings, so I don't think this could make a big difference in the generated sound. I plan to model sympathetic string resonances too, but for now it's too soon.Of course the way the hammer hits the string could change (drastically, sometimes) the timbre. I'm trying to model that too (the way the hammer hits the string) so that you could have virtually infinite timbre variations of a vibrating string sound.

Actually it would because string resonance contributes to the timbre of the note.

Thanks for the information. But does anyone here need help finding something to look at in that video?

Being that the 3 strings of a same note resonate at (nearly) the same frequency, each one of those 3 strings would excite the same sympathetic resonances from the other strings, so I don't think you could hear differences regarding sympathetic resonance if you "muted" the third not-struck string of the same played note.

My guess is that the piano of an active teacher gets constant play, especially if students travel to her studio for lessons. Those hammers are well worn and grooved, and over time the natural "unpedaled" sound has brightened up. So when you experience the una corda pedal on that piano, the difference is much more drastic, especially compared to a new grand you may find on a showroom floor.

Did you read my link on aliquot stringing? That's why some VSTs simulate aliquot resonance.

(Now, that said, I think it is the simulation of a defect.)

I know what aliquot strings are, but I don't see how this could invalidate what I wrote before. If in my model I disabled 1 of 3 strings of a note, and supposing I modeled aliquot strings too, these should resonate even when I disable 1 string of 3 for each note, being that aliquot strings are separated from the other normal strings. Unless for "aliquot" strings you meant the "duplex scaling" system invented by Steinway, that doesn't use separated strings, but the final portion of each string through a sort of double bridging system. Anyway I have neither of those two different aliquot systems implemented, so it doesn't matter... I have to learn to walk before I can run... Aliquot resonance is an embellishment to the sound, is not a defect. Current pianos sound better than pianos made in the time of Beethoven, because now they have all those little details that first pianos had not. Of course, it's your right to think that a piano produced in 1800 era sounded better than a current Steinway. Personally I think that current grand pianos sound A LOT better.

That's a piano from 1820:

The "authorities" would disagree with you. But I don't. It's a defect.Just as with the pedal noises ... I don't want it simulated. Rather, it ought to be eliminated.

+1!!!

I find it odd that you can't adjust the effectiveness of the soft pedal on the N1X. Have you tried contacting your dealer or Yamaha directly about this? Perhaps it's an issue that needs addressing. Or it could be a defect. Can you try it with Pianoteq or some other VST that has adjustable settings for una corda to make sure your pedal is sending a signal?

I checked the manual of the N1X and I didn't find an option to change the effectiveness of the soft pedal... That's very strange! Of course if you use a VST it should work well (at the end of the day it's just an ON/OFF pedal), but it's strange that on a top-model digital piano there isn't such an option.

I don't think the lack of an adjustment is odd.
I think it's peculiar that the fixed setting is wrong, or claimed to be so.